Letter #93-It´s been a long time, now i´m, coming back home.‏

I´ve been away now, oh how, I´ve been alone.

WAIT til I come back to your side and we´ll forget the tears we´ve cried.

TRUTH, I will speak truth with you: HELP!, RUBBER SOUL, and REVOLVER by The Beatles could be in the top three greatest albums in the world. but that is just a side note. 

This week was awesome! So for my birthday we woke up really early and went to Baiano´s house to fill out the baptismal forms for Jessica and Carina. It was fun, then we left to go do a service project for someone. So listen to this. Our project was transporting brick for a family in our branch. Now that may not sound fun, but it was a blast, I really did enjoy it a lot. 

Then we ran to our lunch. They had made french fries and some sort of meat. It was amazing and for dessert, they made a huge chocolate cake with some candles on it. It was super nice. Then we went back to Baiano´s house to teach Carina and help her get prepared for baptism. It was fun. Then that night we went to Marcos and Vanesa´s house and they had put balloons up and made a cake. 

Because we had focused a lot on the Book of Mormon with him, he says he thinks of us when he reads the Book of Mormon so for my birthday they made a cake with a frosting of the Book of Mormon on top. It was so awesome. It was a blast. He is SO ready to be baptized, he just needs to get married first. We will get it done, he just has to get his documents first (Brasil has some weird laws) but it was great teaching him. Then the next day we had their interviews and Carina picked Elder Schmidt to baptize her. It was awesome. It was great. 

That day we also visited this family that we got to know pretty well. They work in 4 Barras and we just would talk to him a lot then one day he was like, you have to pass by my house and visit us. So we did. It was interesting. He's really into the Book of Revelation which was fun. 

On Saturday night we went and visited Admilson with Baiano. We were so excited to mark a date with him but it didn´t work out and we weren´t able to but before we went to Admilson´s house I told Baiano about dad´s conversion story with Roger Ethington and how Roger was a member and was good friends with dad and invited him to come to church and then be baptized. I guess Baiano was inspired because after he left us at our house, he went back to Admilson´s house and talked with him and invited him to be baptized! He accepted!!! So this week we will just mark the date. But he is super super excited.

AND JESSICA AND CARINA WERE BAPTIZED!!!! Jessica has been comin to church for well over a year. I don´t know what changed when we invited her, but she accepted and she was finally baptized. Elder Schmidt did great. He did have to do the ordinance 2 times but just becasue the first time, her hand wasn´t completely underneath the water. But the baptism was great. 

I am sending a pic of the baptism, the other guy in white is the branch pres. It was wonderful. The second pic is us at lunch on Sunday. The Baianos made a BBQ and we ate with them. It was awesome.

Well, family, I love you so much. I am so grateful for the love and prayers. They are helping a ton. Don´t Stop Believing!

p.s.s. if in the last while you have written me a letter, be expecting a response. i have many letters written, but i was lacking money to send. now i will start to send them.

I LOVE YOU ALL
Com Amor,

Elder Askins

Letter #92-"Everybody falls sometimes, but you will have the strength to rise."‏

That´s from the new EFY cd. Elder Schmidt has it and it is awesome. I love the song. That´s what faith can do. I will include some words from the song, "I´ve seen dreams that move the mountains, hope that doesn´t ever end even when the sky is falling. I´ve seen miracles just happen, silent prayers get answered, broken hearts become brand new. That´s what faith can do." I love that. 

I think that sums up my mission right there. I have seen so many miracles. It also says the following: "It doesn´t matter what you heard, impossible is not a word, it´s just a reason for someone not to try. Everybody´s scared to death, when they decide to take that step out on the water, it´ll be alright." It´s an awesome song that talks about the power of faith.

So if this email is short, I can safely say it´s dad´s fault. Why? I spent about 5 hours laughing at the "Just a friendly reminder to visit the temple." I looked and said where have I seen them. I tapped Elder Schmidt and said "What movie are they from?" Then it clicked in my head and I started laughing and I couldn´t stop. 

Thanks for all the wonderful birthday wishes. It was the best. Chad also wrote me a birthday thing, with a picture of him and his girlfriend. Is she the British one? That´s neat.

Yes, so the words on the street are true. I think I will follow Elder Eric Whitlock´s example of how he does emails, he writes it like a thesis paper (Way to go Elder Eric!!!):

I think you could sum up these events of my life in 4 very true statements, let´s end the confusion:

1. I lost my cards.

2. I shook the hands of Elder Ballard and Elder Andersen from the 12 apostles (3 down, 9 more to go!)

3. My birthday is arriving soon.

4. We will have TWO baptisms this weekend!!!!

 

1. Yes, it´s true, I lost my cards this week and I am extremely embarrassed. but thanks for all the help dad. I thought I knew where they were (I was like 99 percent possitive that they fell out of my pocket in the chapel at Boa Vista) the Sisters of the area went and couldn´t find them. Thanks Aud for cancelling everything for me and thanks dad for getting me a new license and card (do you think I can get a horizantal license because I´ll be 21 soon!?) HAH!

2. So this past Friday we were visited here in the mission by Elder Ballard, Elder Andersen, and Elder Mazzagardi, all with their wives. We were able to shake their hands. It was AMAZING!!! I even brought my notes to the LAN House to write down somethings, but I have not enough time. I will sum it up like this: Elder Andersen gave his message entirely in Portuguese (Isn´t he the man!?) and talked about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, especially from 2 Nephi 2:8-9 (I think).

Elder Ballard told us the history of the song Called to Serve (did you know it was a primary song- I bet you mom knew that!) and then told us mission stories and another story about LeGrand Richards (you know I love him). All I can say is I loved every minute of it. There was just not enough time to be with them. I would have loved to spend days there! I guess his awesomeness could be summed up in a phrase he said at the end: "I wish I had another hour to show you how I teach the first lesson." I think I would have died from happiness. It was amazing. Many other awesome things happened, but I´ll tell you more at a later date.

3. It is my birthday, some people found out (this one family and Baiano our Ward Mission Leader) We have lunch with this one family, whom I LOVE!! and they are cooks so when they found out what day was my birthday and that I would be here for it, they signed up to have us over for lunch. He said the meal is going to be real good. Last time we ate there, I think I almost exploded from eating so much food. I loved the birthday card family. Thank you!!!!

4. Jessica is getting baptized this weekend|!!!! I am so happy and excited! We were helping the branch with a baptism yesterday and some investigators came to watch. Karina (Jessica´s sister) came and said she wanted to get baptized this weekend with Jessica. So we will work to prepare her. Admilson and Kele (the pizza maker and his wife) came to church ALONE (without Baiano!!!) and came to the baptism. He cried during the Confirmation of the branch´s baptism. It was amazing. I loved it.

So everything is wonderful!!!! Everyone in the branch is really excited and talking about how February is going to be the month of baptisms! ABSOLUTELY!

Don´t Stop Believing!

Com Amor,

Elder Askins

p.s. Congrats to Jordan for getting his call! Jordan, you are my hero! YOu really aRE!!! 

Letter #91-"Two of us wearing raincoats, standing solo in the sun"

We´re on our way home. We´re on our way home. We´re coming home." two of us- the Beatles.

Hello my family. How is everything going in good old Gtown!? Everything here in 4 Barras (or 4 Quatro. Hah mom, that was funny) is great! We are working our tails off!!!! We marked 4 dates this week. 


So on Tuesday we had a training in Curitiba, which was just great. We learned a lot and I came back with Elder Hartly, our district leader. We were in 4B and we had to re-do our plans because we came back late and everything. So I felt like we needed to go visit Aparacida and Valeria. 


First we went to Aparacida´s house and she was busy doing some work, so we re-marked fo the next day and then as we were walking to Valeria´s house. We actually saw her carrrying a big bed frame. So we went over and helped her. Then we left a message on something that she had a question about and then I felt like we needed to mark a date with her. Everytime we extended a date or tried to, she said I don´t know let me think. So I looked at her and just invited her to be baptized and she just sat there for like 5 minutes in silence and I thought of President Cordon saying "Don´t be afraid of the silence" and then she looked at us and said yes I will. We marked a date for  the 29th. She is excited. She has a few problems we will all need your prayers. She came to church with Aparacida. It was a fantastic meeting. 


We also had a wonderful time with Baiano (our ward mission Leader) he has a friend that he has been fellow-shipping and finally marked a date for us to pass by with him. So Saturday night we went over to his house. Here is the awesome part: he is a pizza maker. So we made pizzas and taught him the first lesson. It was really great. Baiano gave him a Book of Mormon and he was so excited. It really was a spiritual lesson and it was amazing. Then that Sunday after church we had lunch at Baiano´s house. On our way there, Elder Harly called and said that the Zone Leaders challenged us to find someone who came to church that didn´t have a baptismal date and to mark a date with them. And so i was thinking on what we would do. 


When we got there, we ate lunch with Baiano´s family and his sister-in-law, who has been investigating the church for 1 year now. but it didn´t cross my mind to mark a date. Then we were chatting about Baiano´s friend and about how there are tons of people who are progressing and his sister-in-law said missionaries just baptize anyone and everyone and so I starting chatting with her about baptism and the steps that happen before baptism with interviews and what not. She had some questions about the interview so I sat down with her and started doing a ´mock´interview with her. She had a testimony about everything and knew and kept all the commandments and then a thought entered into my mind: It´s her that you are to baptize. So at the end of the interview I said you are keeping all the commandments and go to church every Sunday, but why aren´t you baptized yet? and she didn´t know why. After a minute or 2 she expressed her fears, and Baiano and I explained to her some things and then I invited her to be baptized. She said yes and I asked but when? and she said soon and I said next week. She said not that soon. So we marked for the 5th of February. She was so excited that she called th Branch President and the ex-relief society president and invited them. 

This week was great and we are so excited! Thanks for everything I love you all so much and I am so thankful for the love and prayers. You are the best family in the world!
Don´t stop believing!
Com Amor, 
Elder Nay

Found this little Treasure

Elder Askins, Elder Schmidt and Elder Santa

letter #90-Hey Bulldog‏

Hello my wonderful family. Times and seasons and people stay but some things are consistent. Missionaries serve missions, people become converted and are baptized, but some things are constant in our lives: love for family, for the Savior, mom ironing, our family playing pounce (nanie not being excluded from that!), and my love for the Beatles. oh yes!  

I have been informed recently that Eric Whitlock is the 'Online Assistant to the President'. What does that mean? I have no clue. but did I laugh when i heard that. That was my little laugh for the day, and I know dad enjoyed that. Eric is amazing. and funny.

So this week has been wonderful. Mom, my haircut turned out nice, I was starting to look like Wolverine from X-men. hahaha. but it was good. 

So some things have happened since last week. We had interviews with President Cordon, which was wonderful. We have been working really hard this week. I was reflecting on the week last night and I was thinking about how it´s been a while since we baptized. But the spirit spoke to me that the Lord was happy with our work and I started talking to Elder Schmidt about our investigators and we became very happy because when we arrived here in 4 Barras (not 4 quatro mom. hahaha) we had some old investigators that were on track to be baptized but they were getting baptized just because they had friends in the church or because their wife wanted them to get baptized. These past few months I have been thinking about the talk by Sister Cordon on grace and the talks by Brad Wilcox and just reflecting on the importance of being baptized. I realized that (while baptism is SUPER) important it is only 1 of 3 important elements as described in Moses 6:59-60. It is super important to be baptized, but it is also important to receive the Holy Ghost AND repent. We have seen a lot of our investigators start to gain real, personal testimonies of the truthfulness of the Gospel. 

For example: we are teaching Marcos and Vanessa. They need to get married, we have been teaching them for almost 8 weeks. JUST last week, he read for the first time since the Elders started teaching him. We felt impressed to teach them about the Priesthood. We were looking at his teaching record and realized all the missionaries have taught all the lessons like 10 times, but none of the laws and ordinances. So we felt impressed to teach about Priesthood. We gave him a triple-combination and marked things to read. HE READ! and even had questions. He said "Why is it that men can hold the priesthood and women can´t?" I thought of President Hall and my interview to receive the Melk. Priesthood when he asked the same question. We chatted a little and HE answered his own question! HE asked for 2 Sundays off per month. HE wants to get married because HE wants to get baptized now.

Another couple we are teaching Mateus and Tiele we have been teaching them for about a month. He walked up to our new ward mission leader (Which is Baiano- HE IS SO AWESOME) and said that HE wanted to get married because HE wants to get baptized. We also figured out the problems of a few other investigators. 

We started teaching Dara who is the sister of an RM she read the parts we marked in the BoM and felt so good when she read it that she gave it to her mom. Her mom felt so good when she read it that she passed it to someone on the bus to read. Dara is traveling for a little bit but we will work with her when she comes back and so we have seen it with many of our investigators. 

I was retaught by the Spirit the importance in the preparation of baptism and repentance. We need to repent ever day. It is a huge part of the first principles of th Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I am absolutely giddy! (you know that that means it can only be 1 thing...) This month our mission will be visited by 2 Apostles. We will be visited by Elder M. Russel Ballard and Elder Neil L. Andersen. I am super excited. They are coming like the 27th of January. (I am telling everyone that they are coming to visit me on my birthday) HAH. well.

I love you all so much. I really do. I am so grateful for the support you have given me this far and that you are continually giving me. I am grateful for your love and your prayers. I am feeling them. Thanks so much for everything, and for allowing me to have the best 2 years ever. 

Don´t Stop Believing!

Com Amor,

Elder Askins

Letter #89-"It´s been a long time, now i´m coming back home.‏

I´ve been away now. Oh how I´ve been alone."

Hello family! It was wonderful to hear from you all. Everryone wrote me a letter. hahaha It was great to hear from you all. 


Everything here is going great. So we went to Mark Marcos´wedding last week. Everyone was all worried about his documents being right that no one took the time to look at his wife, Vanessa´s documents. They were not up to date and we could not mark the wedding. :( but the Branch President said that the branch will still help with everything. Which is just fantastic. So we are working on getting both of their documents here. Wedding in February. :)

Nicanor. He is awesome. He wasn´t able to go to church on Sunday because he had to go to Curitiba. His date to be baptized also fell because we found out that he lives with his ex-wife and they are not legally married. He is planning on moving out, in fact the government already has a place for him, he´s just waiting for them to give him the keys. He is smoking and drinking coffee but he is stopping with the smoking. Which is good and everyday drinking less and less coffee. Which is great. 


Yesterday, we were able to teach this girl that we have been wanting to teach for a long time. Her brother is a returned missionary and lives in Curitiba. We taught her the first lesson and she really enjoyed it. Our only problem is that we never can find her. She is always out and about. So our next goal is getting her to church.

Aparacida and Valéria ALMOST came to church but in the last second, sent a message saying they weren´t able to go. Oh, but they will. We taught their family the Plan of Salvation yesterday and it was great. They loved it and asked some great questions. 

We are getting a new ward mission leader or new branch mission leader. He is awesome. It´s not official so I can't say it, but let´s just say he is awesome and he already has a family for us to teach! I am just so excited I can't stand it. 

Things are really picking up here in 4 Barras. We are getting a good group of people. Now we just need to baptize. 


It was wonderful to hear that my old friends are getting ready to go on missions now. It´ll help them so much. I love you all so much and I am so thankful for the prayers and support. I can feel them! I have to go because the Branch President´s wife is gonna cut our hair! yay!!! I love you all so much and don´t stop believing!!!
com amor,
Elder Nathan Palmer Askins

Letter #95-"And tonight i walk through an empty street

With my shadow strectching in front of me. When my lonely thoughts meet my lonely feet and the cold reminds me that I´ve chosen this life." Sherwood.

Dear family. 
Did I surprise you that I´m on today!? hahahaha. I was sad I didn´t have any mail when I got on today. hah just kidding. So on Friday we received word that starting this year our p-day would be on Mondays. So program it, that now I will be on the computer on Mondays and not on Wednesdays. So you can write your emails Sunday nights and what not. It´s a little more difficult for you all to right me Monday morning, considering that now we are like 5 hours in difference.

So how was your New Years!? Was it wonderful!? Mine was pretty good. We had to be home by 9:30 and I was sleeping by like 11, which suprised me because outside of our house, It sounded like I was in Iraq (because of all the shouts and fireworks) you know they say how you ring in the New Years is how you´ll spend your next year. well, I hope that´s not true, because that would mean that this next year will include a lot of sleep for me. hah.

So this week was great. Filled with a lot of work and a lot of surprises. Not TOO much has happened, considering the last email was sent on the last Wednesday. but to fill you in on some things:

We did a contact with a man named Nikanor on the street on like Thursday. We passed by his house and taught him the first lesson. He has a date to be baptized this Sunday. Please pray for him. He is a sweet little old man of about 60 years. He came to church this weekend and loved it. After the meeting he said "And this happens every Sunday? It looks like I´ll be coming here then." hahaha It was so awesome. He liked it. He has some fears/doubts about baptism, but we are helping him. Please please pray for him. 

We had a neat experience yesterday:
We were walking on the street doing a lot of contacts with a lot of different people and I saw this group of people and I thought to myself, we will NOT contact them (I don´t know why) so we started passing them. I even said to Elder Schmidt, "let´s not pass those people, I think they are drunk." Well, as we were walking, I was looking at them, and behind the group was this teenager. He looked really familiar. I looked at him and he looked up at me and I saw his eyes and it was Vítor from São José dos Pinhais!!! Sonia´s son that me and Elder Elias baptized!!!! He saw me and got a huge smile on his face and came and gave me a huge hug. It was so awesome to see him. We chatted for a little bit. He said that he was living with his dad now and they moved here to Quatro Barras. He showed us where he lived and it was so great to see him. He told me all about Sonia and everyone in São José. It was so great to see him. We will definitely have to go visit him and maybe even start teaching his dad.

So on Saturday we were walking and a drunk man threw 2 fireworks at us. It was so funny. I felt like Wil Ferrell and Andy Sanberg from the video "Cool guys don´t look at explosions." We were pretty cool and kept walking. It was nice. 

Family, I love you all so much and I am so grateful for you. I love you all. I was thinking last night about each one of you individually and collectively and I am super blessed to have a family like you. I hope you guys are excited for March and have some neat things planned after we go get Bahama Bucks!!!! hahahah I love you all so so so so so much and I hope all is well with you all. Sorry that I wasn´t able to inform you that p-day would be today. I didn´t know. but know that from now on, every pday will be on Monday. I love you all! Don´t stop believing!!!!!! Keep true to the faith!!!!
com amor,
Elder Askins